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Suparna Dey

Suparna Dey was born in Calcutta in 1981 and went on to earn a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Rabindra Bharati University in 2006.

Best known for her portraits of women, Suparna’s artwork portrays a connection between women and nature that is based on her observations of women and their environment. Her brushstrokes are smooth, delicate and almost invisible with highlights that illuminate her subject’s features with a soft glow. Her paintings are carefully executed, to a great depth of detail which gives them an almost Mughal-miniature like quality.

In the artist’s words: “I think of India as a country saturated with colour. The content of my paintings evolved, based on my experience of the Indian reality – the people, the environment. My themes are traditionally Indian, and nature and the environment play an important part in it.The nature of rural Bengal and its vibrant flora and fauna have inspired me to bring out the softness of nature in its varied forms. Vivid colours and textures of the season, blooming flowers and leaves come together into a radiant panorama on my canvas. I have relied on my observation of women’s relationship with her environment. The Nayikas (the feminine emotions) are the central theme of my work. These women seem both intimately knowable while being hypnotically mythic at the same time. The paintings have a dreamlike, nostalgic and lyrical quality with a unique sensitivity which permeates in every brushstroke – transporting the viewer into a brighter world seen through the eyes of a woman artist. The academic oriental style in these paintings reflects a delicacy of treatment with oil paint and minuteness of detail. It led me to pursue an inner creative journey to acquire visual splendour while maintaining a philosophical undertone.”